'Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable' : Sakini, in "The Tea House of the August Moon" by John Patrick, (1953)

Friday, May 25, 2018

How retaining Kairana has suddenly become tougher for BJP

With the JD(S) and the
Congress joining hands to keep the BJP out of power in Karnataka, all eyes are
now on Uttar Pradesh where bypolls for the Kairana Lok Sabha seat and Noorpur
assembly seat are slated to be held on May 28. The bypolls hold much importance
for the ruling BJP after the recent drubbing in the Gorakhpur and Phoolpur
bypolls where arch rivals Samajwadi Party tied
up with the Bahujan
Samaj Party to defeat the saffron party.

Moreover, after a show
of strength by a united Opposition during the HD Kumaraswamy swearing-in in
Karnataka, the BJP must have felt the pinch, and a defeat in Kairana and
Noorpur will make it obvious that regional parties together can combat the
‘invincible’ BJP in the 2019 general elections. Unlike in Gorakhpur and
Phulpur, the Congress has joined hands with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan
Samaj Party in a bid to deal another blow to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, which
has 80 Lok Sabha seats. Kairana hit the
national headlines before the 2017 UP assembly elections after the local MP
Hukum Singh raised the issue of Hindu exodus from the area. The bypoll in
the seat has been necessitated following the death of Hukum Singh.

To cash in on the
sympathy wave towards Hukum Singh’s family, the BJP has fielded his daughter
Mriganka in Kairana. But RLD candidate Tabassum Hasan, who has the support of
the BSP, SP and Congress, seemed confident too. Hasan’s candidature got a boost
on Thursday after Lok Dal candidate Kanwar Hasan joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal at
a meeting held in Kairana in the presence of Jayant Chaudhary, the national vice-president
of RLD... read more: